About Assumption of Mary
The Assumption of Mary on 15 August commemorates the belief, taught as dogma in the Catholic Church since 1950, that the Virgin Mary was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory at the end of her earthly life. The tradition is older than the formal definition — Eastern Christians have observed the Dormition of the Theotokos on the same date since at least the sixth century. It marks the high point of the Marian calendar and is one of the holy days of obligation in the Catholic Church. The day is a public holiday in many traditionally Catholic countries: Spain, Portugal, France, Italy, Belgium, Luxembourg, Austria, parts of Germany and Switzerland, Poland, Croatia, Slovenia, Greece, Lithuania, and a number of Latin American countries.
In Italy 15 August is Ferragosto, the high point of the summer holidays: cities empty, beaches and mountain resorts fill, fireworks light up coastal towns, and the family lunch — pasta al forno, grilled fish, watermelon — is the central ritual. In Spain and Portugal patron saint festivals fill many towns: the Assumption is the feast day of countless villages and cities, with processions, fireworks, bullfights, and the Tomatina that follows shortly after in Buñol. In France it is one of the great summer fériés, with masses, processions through villages and the start of the wine harvest in some regions. In Greece it is the most important Marian feast of the year. In Bavaria and Austria churches are filled with herb bouquets (Kräuterbuschen) blessed during mass — a folk custom going back to the medieval period.